ECUADOR, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: SANTIAGO ISLAND, Part 2

 March 25, 2022 - Afternoon

We had one final snorkeling adventure planned on the afternoon of our last full day in the Galapagos Islands off Espumilla Beach on Santiago Island. This last snorkeling trip was, in my opinion, the best of the many snorkeling opportunities we had. I wish we'd had a better underwater camera, but these posters at least illustrate the wide variety of fish in the Galapagos ocean.

ECUADOR, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: SANTIAGO ISLAND, Part 1

 March 25, 2022 - Morning  

We were feeling a bit waterlogged after a lot of snorkeling on this trip and decided to opt out of the morning snorkeling trip in anticipation of another snorkeling trip planned for the afternoon. We planned to just stay in our room and get caught up on reading, journaling, etc. 

However, one of the employees came to our cabin to tell us Fernanda had called and asked him to see if we wanted to go exploring in a panga. That sounded like fun, so off we went.

The panga traced a path along the shoreline, and we saw all kinds of animals--boobies, sea lions, pelicans, diving birds, and more.

I had fun taking pictures of Bob taking pictures.

ECUADOR, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: ISABELA ISLAND - TAGUS COVE PANGA RIDE AND EQUATOR CROSSING

 March 24, 2022, Afternoon and Evening

In the afternoon we took a panga trip to Vincente Roca Point, the northernmost site on Isabela Island. It is supposed to be a fantastic area for snorkeling, but the water was very murky.

I could see the great swaths of bubbles that Bob said had a soapy taste.

Close up, it didn't look like bubbles at all--more like DNA chains.

ECUADOR, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: FERNANDINA ISLAND - ESPINOZA POINT

 March 23, 2022, Afternoon

The last expedition of the day was a walking excursion on Fernandina Island, an island next to Isabela Island, where we had spent the morning and the previous day. Our naturalist guide Fernanda told us Fernandina is her favorite island in the Galapagos, and not just because of the similarity to her name. She was excited to show it to us.

With the good omen of a rainbow behind us, we set out in the pangas for a dry docking on Fernandina Island. Our two-hour visit there may be our favorite experience of the entire Galapagos trip, and possibly one of our favorite travel experiences of all time.

We disembarked directly from the panga onto a short length of concrete that acted like a pier. We were the second panga in, and we wondered what everyone from the first panga was taking pictures of. When we got to that spot, we saw this green marine iguana crawling out of the water.

When we were only about 10 yards farther down the trail, we started hearing gasps from those in front of us, and when we could  see what they were looking at, we gasped too. A clearing was jam-packed with completely motionless marine iguanas--hundreds of them--some unceremoniously stacked on top of others, and they didn't even bother to acknowledge our presence. 

CAPE TOWN: SOUTH AFRICA: PENGUINS AT BOULDERS BEACH

In 1982, a nesting pair of African penguins (also called "jackass" penguins because of the braying-like noise they make) arrived on Boulders Beach, a series of granite-lined inlets located between Cape Town and Cape Point. These days there are over 2,000 penguins sharing the spot.

As we walked down the sidewalk from the parking lot to the beach, we were excited to see our first penguins. This is NOT the setting that I expected:

What look like partially submerged barrels are actually penguin condos:

There were rows of them, and all appeared to be occupied: